Weight-operated latch



E. E. TANGARD WEIGHT-OPERATED LATCH Sept. 9, 1958 Filed May 23, 1956 2Sheets-Sheet 1 WM i I a m i w f |l1hm\ H\ H a m o w A w m. m

Sept. 9, 1958 E. E. TANGARD WEIGHT-OPERATED LATCH 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FiledMay 25, 1956 Fig. 3.

INVENTOR. Einar E. Tongord ATTORNEY V United States PatentWEIGHT-OPERATED LATCH Einar E. Tangard, Scarsdale, N. Y., assignor toCombustion Engineering, Inc., New York, N. Y., a co ration of Delaware,

Application May 23, 1956, Serial No. 586,715 4 Claims. (Cl. 285-88) Thisinvention relates to latching mechanism and has particular relation to alatch which is weightor gravitybiased to its latching position.

In accordance with the invention there is provided a lever whichincludes a generally horizontal leg and an upright leg with the uprightleg having extending laterally therefrom a finger that may be insertedin the adjacent opening to lock the member therewithin. This latchinglever is pivotal about its pivotal axis to and from a latching andunlatching position and an actuating lever which is also pivotallymounted within the sleeve is nested within the locking lever and ispivoted to and from a position where it is effective to prevent movementof the latching lever from its latched to its unlatched position withthe actuating lever being operative to move the latching lever to andfrom its extreme positions. Positioned above this actuating lever is arelatively heavy body member which bears against the lever and urges itto its locking position with relation to the latching lever. Theactuating lever and the latching lever have complementary cam surfacesby means of which the latching lever is moved from its unlatched to itslatched position as the actuating lever is moved into its lockingposition with relation to the latching lever. Pivotal movement of theactuating lever from its locking position to the position where it iseffective to move the latching lever to its unlatched position is had bymeans of a rod or bar extending upwardly through a passage provided inthe body member and out the upper .end of the sleeve with the lower endof this bar bearing against the actuating lever. Thus the weight of thebody member maintains the latch mechanism in its latching position andwhen it is desired to move the latching lever to its unlatched positionthis rod is moved downward and must be retained in its downward positionagainst the weight of the body member in order to maintain the mechanismin its unlatched position.

It is an object of this invention to provide an improved latch which isweight or gravity biased to its latching position.

Other and further objects of the invention will become apparent to thoseskilled in the art as the description proceeds.

With the aforementioned objects in view the invention comprises anarrangement, construction and combination of the elements of theinventive organization in such a manner as to attain the results desiredas hereinafter more particularly set forth the following detaileddescription of an illustrative embodiment, said embodiment being shownby the accompanying drawing wherein:

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Fig. 1 is a generally vertical section through the latching mechanism ofthe present invention shown in the latched position.

Fig. 2 is a view similar to that of Fig. l with the mechanism in theunlatched position.

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken generally along line 3-3 ofFig. 1 but showing the body and latch members in elevation.

Fig. 4 is a horizontal sectional view of the latching mechanism, as seenwhen looking upward from a plane indicated by the line 4-4 of Fig. 1.

Referring now to the drawing, wherein like reference characters are usedthroughout to designate like elements, the latching organizationillustratively depicted therein and which represents a preferredembodiment of the present invention includes a housing or frame 10 whichis provided with a pair of immediately adjacent bores 12 and 14, alatching mechanism 16 being positioned and retained within the bore 12and operative to releasably retain an elongated member 18 within thebore 14.

The latching mechanism 16 includes a preferably cylindrical sleeve 20which is retained within bore 12 by means of a snap ring 22, the sleevebeing interposed between the lower end of the bore and the snap ring andpreferably closed at its top and bottom by plate members 24 and 26,respectively. In the lower end of the sleeve 20 is disposed an L-shapedlocking or latching lever 28 which is pivotally mounted upon ahorizontal pin 30 which is in turn secured to the sleeve. This lockinglever includes a horizontal leg 32 and an upright leg 34 from the upperend of which extends a laterally disposed finger 36 received within andpassing through an opening 38 in the wall of sleeve 20. The lever 28 maybe pivoted about a pin 30 to and from a latching position where finger26 extends laterally from the sleeve 20 into the bore 14 where it may bereceived in a suitable recess 40 in the elongated member 18 to preventremoval of this member from the bore 14 and a position where this fingerdoes not extend laterally from the sleeve, the former position beingshown in Fig. l and the latter position being shown in Fig. 2.

Actuation of locking lever 28 to and from its latching and unlatchingposition is had by means of an actuating lever 42 which may be said tobe nested within the lever 28 and is pivotally mounted upon a pin 44which is horizontally disposed and is connected to the sleeve 20. Whenthe lever 42 is in the position shown in Fig. 1 it is effective to locklever 28 in its latched position since a nose portion 46 of the lever 42prevents rearward movement of the upper end of the upright leg 34 of thelatching lever, while when the lever 42 is in its position shown in Fig.2, its opposite end acts against that end of lever 28 remote from thepin 30, pivoting the latching lever to its unlatched position as shown.The levers 28 and 42 are received within a transversely extending recess48 provided in the lower end of a body member 50 which is snugly butslidably mounted within the sleeve 20 so that it is capable of limitingvertical movement within the sleeve. This body member is relativelyheavy and bears against the upper end of the nose portion 46 of lever 42to urge this lever to its locking position with relation to the lever28. In order that the latching lever 28 will be moved from its unlatchedto its latched position in response to pivotal movement of the actuatinglever 42 from its Fig. 2 to its Fig. 1 position the nose portion 46 oflever 42 and the rearward portion of the upright leg 34 of lever 32 formcoacting cam surfaces 52 and 54, respectively, which are effective tocam the lever 28 from its unlatched to its latched position as the lever42 moves counterclockwise as viewed in Fig. 1 about the pin 44. The bodymember 50 is provided with a slot 56 through which the pin 44 extends,this slot being vertically elongated to permit the body member to movevertically within the housing to the extent required by movement of thelever 42 about the pin 44 between its two extreme positions. The weightof the body member 50 is sufiicient to move the lever 28 from itsunlatched to its latched position so that there is no possibility of thelatch mechanism being inoperative for failure of a spring or the like.

In order to move the lever 28 from its latched to its unlatched positionthe body member 50 and the plate 24 are provided with aligned passages58 and 60, respectively, through which extends a rod 62 the lower end ofwhich bears against that end of lever 42 remote from the nose portion 46so that upon depressing the rod 62 the lever 42 is rotatedcounterclockwise about the pin 44 to raise the body member 50 and tomove the nose portion 46 out of locking relation to the upright leg 34of lever 38, the remote end of the lever 42 then engaging thecorrespondingend of leg 32 of the lever 28 and causing this lever tomove to its unlatched position.

Thus with the present invention assurance is had that the latch willremain in its latched position preventing accidental release and removalof the element that is to be retained in a given position, the latchmechanism being extremely simple and yet positive in its operation.

While I have illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of mynovel organization it is to be understood that such is merelyillustrative and not restrictive and that variations and modificationsmay be made therein without departing from the function and scope of theinvention. I therefore do not wish to be limited to the precise detailsset forth but desire to avail myself of such changes as fall within thepurview of my invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A weight-operated latch comprising a vertically disposed sleeve, arelatively heavy body member snugly but slidably received within saidsleeve so as to permit limited vertical movement therewithin, said bodymember having a transversely extending slot therein and said sleevehaving an opening in its side wall communicating with said slot, alocking lever disposed in said slot and pivotally connected to saidsleeve for pivotal movement to and from a position where one end of thelever extends laterally from said sleeve through said opening and aposition where it is contained within said sleeve with the weight of thebody member being efiective to urge said lever to the first-mentionedposition, an actuating rod extending through a passage in the bodymember and out through the upper end of the sleeve, said rod beingoperative upon being depressed to pivot said lever about its axis fromits first-mentioned to its second-mentioned position.

2. A latch, weight-biased to the latching position, comprising incombination a vertically disposed sleeve, a relatively heavy body memberdisposed Within said sleeve and vertically movable therewithin, alocking lever located generally beneath said body member and pivoted tosaid sleeve for rotation about its pivotal axis to a latching positionwhere a portion of the lever extends through an opening in the side wallof the sleeve for receipt in a suitable keeper means and an unlatchingposition where the lever does not extend laterally from the sleeve, asecond lever pivoted to said sleeve and juxtaposed to the locking lever,said second lever being urged by the weight of the body member to apredetermined locking position where it is effective to prevent movementof the locking lever from its latching to its unlatching position, anactuating rod extending through the body member and engaging the secondlever, said rod being effective upon depression to move the second leverout of its locking position with respect to the locking lever and movethe latter to its unlatching position, said locking and second levershaving coacting camming surfaces disposed to cam the locking lever toits latching position in response to said second lever returning to saidpredetermined position under the influence of the body member.

3. In an organization of the type described a generally verticallydisposed housing adapted to be secured to one of a pair of members, alatching lever pivotally mounted within said housing about a horizontalaxis and pivotable between a latching position where a portion of thelever extends laterally from the housing for receipt within the other ofthe pair of members and an unlatching position where the lever does notextend from the housing, a locking and actuating lever pivotally mountedwithin said sleeve about an axis parallel with the pivotal axis of thelatching lever and pivotal between a first position where it engages thelatching lever after having moved it to its unlatching position and asecond position where it prevents movement of the latching lever fromits latching position, these two levers having complementary engagingcam surfaces disposed so that the latching lever is moved from itsunlatching to its latching position in response to the actuating levermoving from its first to its second position, a relatively heavy bodymember snugly but slidably received within said housing and bearingagainst the locking and actuating lever to urge it to its secondposition, an operating rod extending downward through the housing andaccessible from the top of the housing, said rod bearing against saidlocking and actuating lever and being operative upon depression to movethis lever from its second to its first position.

4. In a latch mechanism the combination of a housing, a first orlatching lever disposed in said housing and including a generallyhorizontal leg and an upright leg, said lever being pivotally connectedto the housing at the juncture of the legs and adjacent the side wall ofthe housing and rotatable about its pivotal axis between first andsecondextreme positions, a finger extending from the upright leg of thelever and arranged so that when the lever is in one of its extremepivotal positions the finger extends laterally from the housing whilewhen it is in the other extreme pivotal position it does not extendlaterally from the housing, a second lever pivotally mounted within thesleeve about an axis which parallels that of the latching lever andwhich lies intermediate the ends of this second lever, this second leverbeing generally nested within the locking lever so that one end overliesthe distal end of the latching lever and the other end is disposedinwardly and juxtaposed to the upright leg of the locking lever, saidsecond lever being pivotal between a first position where it engages thedistal end of the locking lever to pivot the latter to its unlatchingposition and a second position where it engages the upper leg of thelocking lever and effectively locks it in its latching position, theupright leg of the locking lever and the juxtaposed end of the secondlever having coacting camming surfaces operative to cause the latchinglever to move to its latching position in response to the second levermoving from its first to its second position, a relatively heavy bodymember disposed within the sleeve and vertically movable therewithin,said body member engaging the second lever and urging it to its secondposition, an actuating rod extending downward through the sleeve andhaving one end engaging the end of the second lever, the other end ofsaid rod extending upward through the top of the sleeve so that upondepressing said rod the second lever is moved to said first position andthe latching lever is moved to its unlatching position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS441,393 Bryant Nov. 25, 1890 1,686,302 Walther Oct. 2, 1928 2,495,674Lewis Jan. 24, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS 489,475 Germany Jan. 23, 1930

